By MIKE COURSON
Great Bend Post
With the mine located just south of Lyons, salt has long been an important part of the Rice County Economy. Now, the city of Lyons has an attraction to back the industry. Earlier this month, a 15-foot-tall salt shaker arrived. Interim City Administrator Tanner Faust said it will draw eyes at its location in front of a themed-mural at the corner of Commercial and East Avenue in downtown Lyons.
"We haven't had Guinness: The Book of World Records or anything come out and check, but as far as we know, it is the world's largest," he said. "To scale it, it's 64 times larger than a normal tabletop salt shaker."
Previous Community Development Coordinator Alicia Hommon worked with the city of Lyons to write a grant for the large shaker. In May 2023, the Kansas Department of Commerce awarded the city nearly $14,000 for the project. Sterling's Miles Morton with Morton Made created the salt shaker. Wichita-based Brickmob painted the mural that will serve as the background.
"They did a really nice job," said Faust. "They spent a lot of days that were in the triple digits getting out there and getting it finished up. There's been a lot of hard work that has gone into it. It's really cool to see it all come together. It's been a long time coming."
A glass company in Hutchinson will soon add glass panels to the shaker to give it an even more realistic appearance, and the city is working on filling the shaker.
"We're still looking into that," Faust said. "We've had a couple of ideas. Some of the ideas don't work because they add too much weight to the sculpture and the engineer wouldn't be comfortable signing off on it. We want something that's going to hold up to the weather and we have to have proper ventilation so it doesn't fog up and that kind of thing."
The city of Lyons is also working on additional landscaping and benches for the area.